SAN FERNANDO VALLEY : 15-Year-Old Convicted of Slaying Fellow Student
- Share via
A 15-year-old Panorama City boy was convicted Wednesday of fatally shooting another student at Reseda High School on Feb. 22 and of attempting to rob a second teen-ager about a block away from the school.
San Fernando Valley Juvenile Court Commissioner Jack Gold sustained the petition, which is the equivalent of finding a defendant guilty. Unlike adult criminal matters, there are no jury trials in Juvenile Court.
The teen-ager, whose name is being withheld because of his age, faces a maximum sentence of confinement in a California Youth Authority facility until his 25th birthday. He was not tried as an adult because under state law a juvenile must be at least 16 at the time the crime is committed.
The defendant and several of his schoolmates testified in the daylong trial that the teen-ager and the victim, Micheal Shean Ensley, 17, exchanged words prior to the shooting.
Witnesses testified that the two were from opposing “crews,” which one teen-ager on the stand described as neither taggers nor gang members, but admitted that crews also write on walls and retaliate if any member of their crew is attacked.
Sign up for Essential California
The most important California stories and recommendations in your inbox every morning.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
